Preservation of color of stored meat using noble gases

Abstract

A process for preserving the color of red meat, which entails contacting the meat with an effective amount of an atmosphere selected from the group consisting of a noble gas, a mixture of noble gases and a mixture containing at least one noble gas and a carrier gas, the noble gas in the mixture with the carrier gas being selected from the group consisting of argon, neon, xenon an krypton and being present in said mixture in an amount of greater than about 10% by volume.

Description

1. Field of the InventionThe present invention relates to a method of preserving the color of stored meat using noble gases.2. Description of the BackgroundMeat products, such as beef, veal lamb, mutton and pork are susceptible to a variety of degradative processes. For example, they are susceptible to attack by bacteria. Meat products are also quite susceptible to enzymatic degradation. For example, fats in meat products are readily hydrolyzed to fatty acids, which are, in turn, oxidized to produce a rancid odor. Further, proteins in meat products generate various nitrogen-containing compounds upon spoilage, such as ammonia and amino-group containing compounds which are characterized by a pungent and unpleasant odor.At present, a variety of methods are known for preserving meat products in order to preserve the same from spoilage. However, such methods are generally neither intended nor designed to preserve the color of red meat, and / or generally entail complex process schemes, whi...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Meat products, such as beef, veal lamb, mutton and pork are susceptible to a variety of degradative processes.

For example, they are susceptible to attack by bacteria.

Meat products are also quite susceptible to enzymatic degradation.

Further, proteins in meat products generate various nitrogen-containing compounds upon spoilage, such as ammonia and amino-group containing compounds which are characterized by a pungent and unpleasant odor.

However, such methods are generally neither intended nor designed to preserve the color of red meat, and / or generally entail complex process schemes, which tend to be commercially impractical.

However, this patent does not pertain to preserving of the color of red meat.

Thus, this process requires the use of a reduction step and then uses hazardous carbon monoxide to treat the products in a subsequent step.

However, this patent clearly does not address the deterioration of meat color that attends the use of conventional methods of meat preservation.

However, none of these patents addresses the deterioration of meat color.

However, there is neither a description nor a suggestion in this patent regarding the preservation of meat color.

Despite the existence of various methodologies for extending the shelf-life of fresh meat, none of these affords a means by which the color of red meat or meat products may be preserved in a commercially practical manner.

Further, addition of oxygen to nitrogen offers only very short-term improvement in color, if any (none is shown here).

Addition of oxygen is only capable of producing short-term color improvement.

This is because the reactive gases CO.sub.2 and O.sub.2 have deleterious effects on color in addition to conferring certain desirable effects.

In fact, packaging of the meat or meat products under pressure only serves to enhance the degree of saturation of the effective gas to the limit of practicality established by the sensitivity of the meat or meat products to pressure damage.

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